Briefing Note to Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade

Submitted by the Korean Cultural Centre in Canada (Embassy of the Republic of Korea)

October 2018

THE FOUNDATION FOR KOREA’S CULTURAL AND PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Table of Contents

1. Korea’s Public Diplomacy Act (Act No. 13951, Feb. 3, 2016) 2. Key government agencies involved in Cultural and Public Diplomacy Overseas 3. Korean Cultural Centres: The Outposts of Promoting Korea

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1. Korea’s Public Diplomacy Act (Act No. 13951)

In late November 2015, the Public Diplomacy Act was passed at the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, and enforced by a Presidential Decree (No. 27438), with a view to establishing the integrated and systematic public diplomacy groundwork in government-wide and pan-national dimension. Since then, the Government of the Republic of Korea, under the leadership of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), has been active in engaging in various cultural and public diplomacy initiatives targeting both domestic and international citizens. Sample initiatives include: - Public contests on Korea: foreign contestants compete on their knowledge on Korea and showed off their talent for Korean food, dance, songs, etc. - A resource booth called ‘Korea Corner’ was built in foreign universities or town halls, which aims for providing comprehensive, accurate and in-depth information on Korea. - MOFA succeeded in inserting Korea’s successful history of development into foreign textbooks and tried to revise distorted image of Korea described in foreign media or textbooks. - Inviting Korean citizens to engage in public diplomacy and promoting Korea to the world through participatory programs like ‘the Youth/Senior Public Diplomatic Corps’, ‘Every Citizen is a Foreign Service Officer’, ‘Dream Project’ and ‘public diplomacy interns at foreign missions’. - To share its public diplomacy practices and experiences with other countries and actively establish channels for collaboration, MOFA sought to hold public diplomacy forums with major countries. o For instance, the Korea-China Public Diplomacy Forum has been annually held since 2013 and came to be a meaningful opportunity for discussing substantive ways to increase cooperation in public diplomacy. Recently, MOFA is discussing the launch of public diplomacy forums with the US and Japan. - Korea’s foreign missions regularly receive funding from the Government of the Republic of Korea to hold special cultural events in commemoration of diplomatic milestones and occasions.

2. Key Government agencies involved in Cultural and Public Diplomacy Overseas

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Today's foreign policy expands beyond government actors to civil society and non-governmental organizations. It has become increasingly important to utilize not only hard power assets, such as political affairs, security and economic affairs, but also soft power assets, such as culture, shared values and national image.

Adjusting to the current diplomatic climate, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) has moved beyond the sphere of traditional government-oriented diplomacy by increasing its focus on public diplomacy, which includes reaching out to the foreign public through the arts, knowledge sharing, media, language, and aid. MOFA has worked hard to establish public diplomacy as the third pillar of

2 its foreign policy along with political and economic affairs, having the support of the Public Diplomacy Act.

Korea Foundation

Founded under the Korea Foundation Act (No. 4414) on December 14, 1991, and managed by MOFA, the mission of The Korea Foundation is to promote better understanding of Korea within the international community and to increase friendship and goodwill between Korea and the rest of the world through various exchange and funding programs.

Korea Foundation programs aimed at public diplomacy include the promotion of overseas through programs such as establishment of Korean studies professorships in overseas academic institutions, global networking projects through invitation programs to Korea for foreign policy-makers, supporting publication of Korea-related resources, etc.

These programs are advertised to foreign missions around the world so that the foreign missions can apply on behalf of interested local institutions, organizations, and individuals interested in expanding their Korea-related capacities.

Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism

With the vision of fostering a human-centered culture and forging a culturally-rich country filled with freedom and originality, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) develops, manages and sustains government policies while ensuring that essential cultural programs and services reach the citizens.

The three pillars of the MCST policies are:

- A Fair and balanced culture o Assuring the equality of opportunity and competition o Reinforcing the fundamentals of culture o Achieving regional balance

- Culture capable of enhancing people’s lives o Making culture a part of everyday life o Expand cultural hubs o Support basic cultural experiences

- Culture inspiring change and growth o Lay the foundation for industrial ecology o Create new services

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o Widen global market reach o Improve cultural administration

Korean Culture and Information Service

The Korean Culture and Information Service (KOCIS), a government agency under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, is tasked with the mission of promoting the values of Korean culture around the world and helping to upgrade the country’s national image.

KOCIS works to establish the foundation for cooperation with overseas organizations for the sake of continued cultural exchanges with countries around the world. For example, it participates in regularly-held cultural exchange events abroad, including the Korea-Japan Festival in Tokyo, Festive Korea in Hong Kong and the Edinburgh Festivals, to introduce Korea’s traditional and modern performing arts. In addition, it has organized a wide range of annual cultural exchange programs for Korea-U.K. Creative Futures 2017-2018 by facilitating communications between artists in both countries.

KOCIS is the agency in charge of funding and operating 32 KCCs world-wide, as well as global communication and contents and foreign media relations.

KOCIS has four main missions:

- Planning and Operations o Formulating basic plans to promote Korean culture overseas o Establishing networks of government and non-government organizations for cooperation in the promotion of Korean culture overseas o Carrying out administrative tasks related to general affairs, preparing for the National Assembly’s audit and inspection, drawing up the budget and settling accounts - Global Culture Promotion o Organizing and supporting events that promote Korean culture to enhance Korea’s national image o Formulating and implementing programs to help international organizations based in Korea and foreign nationals residing in the country gain a better understanding of Korean culture o Providing support for Korean Cultural Centers around the world and culture and information officers stationed abroad - Global Communication and Contents o Producing and distributing promotional publications about Korea for use overseas o Producing and distributing videos to promote Korea overseas and carrying out joint projects with international broadcasters o Operating www.korea.net, the official multi-language web portal of the Korean Government, and other social networking platforms

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- Foreign Media Relations o Analyzing and assessing the tone of news articles on Korea by international media and responding to erroneous and distorted reports on Korea o Assisting international journalists in their coverage of Korea and providing support to promote summit diplomacy o Translating Korean documents into English for use by the international media as well as producing and distributing promotional materials on special occasions

3. Korean Cultural Centres: The Outposts of Promoting Korea

The Korean Cultural Centre in Canada was established in September 2016 under the mandate of the Korean Culture and Information Service and locally managed by the Embassy of the Republic of Korea to Canada. The KCC aims to enhance Korea-Canada relations by promoting mutual understanding between and Canadians through the sharing of Korean culture, and facilitating bilateral cooperation between arts and cultural institutions.

The KCC aims to connect with Canadians by hosting and supporting a variety of cultural activities including exhibitions, performances, film screenings, festivals, cultural and language classes, as well as outreach programs.

To this end, the KCC will work to collaborate with various arts and cultural institutions and communities across Canada to provide Canadians with memorable experiences of Korean culture.

Some of the Canadian partners we collaborated with are:

- City of Ottawa: presentation of Korean culture during Ottawa 2017 Ottawa Welcomes the World festivities - Carleton University: promotion of Korean culture and language - Canadian Conservation Institute: exchange of heritage conservation with Korean museums - Taekwondo Canada: promotion of Taekwondo across Canada - CTV Ottawa: special broadcast program of Korean culture and tourism

There are 32 KCCs around the world, as well as 9 Culture and Information Officers posted to Korea’s foreign missions, who play vital roles as outposts to promoting Korean culture across the globe. With annual budgets allocated to them by KOCIS (as well as any supplementary funding made available to them by various organizations within Korea with mandates to promote Korean culture overseas), they provide a variety of special programs for local residents to experience Korean culture firsthand.

These public programs include events and programs related to, but not limited to, K-pop, Korean food, the , Taekwondo, arts and crafts, exhibitions, screening of Korean movies and dramas, and the staging of Korean cultural performances. All of these activities combine to enhance awareness of Korean culture and interest in Korea, thereby fulfilling the purposes of cultural and public diplomacy.

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Network of Korean Cultural Centers and Culture and Information Officers World-wide

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